Friday, August 08, 2008

Rice Burger

Here's another recipe courtesy of The Manga Cookbook:Rice Burgers! The top and bottom "bun" are made from leftover Japanese sticky rice, pressed together and cooked until firm.

I'll let the cookbook explain:

"Like the bread on a sandwich, rice patties can hold just about anything in between. For vegetarians, rice burgers are a godsend, since fast-food chains in Japan often serve them with only sautéed veggies in between."

We filled this burger with Tofurkey slices and topped it with two vegan cheese "sunshines".

In the top row are blueberries, carrots and Yumm sauce, and dried apple slices.

Verdict: I couldn't wait for shmoo to get home today so I could find out how his lunch was, because I must admit I was picturing the rice bun falling apart as he tried to eat it. "Did it work?" I asked him. "Were you able to pick it up and eat it just like bread?"

"YES!" he replied. "The rice held together good. Although I did eat the tofurkey first and then the buns." So there you have it, the perfect sandwich for all you gluten-freers! And the crackers are AWESOME; you would never guess you weren't eating a regular cheese cracker. 4 stars.

Well, everyone, have a great weekend! I hope you enjoyed this special summer camp week filled with new vegan lunches from the shmoo and me!

yay for vegan cheese crackers!!!! although i did enjoy making your goldfish.

i was just thinking about Mos when i saw this post! we had mos last year in taiwan. the idea really is quite ingenius. at mos, they pan fried the rice buns so that the outsides were slightly crispy. did the cook book mention anything about pan-frying?

>>I have that cookbook, but I couldn't get the rice to stick together enough to fry.... it kept falling apart. What's the secret?

Was your rice cold? The cookbook doesn't say it, but just like when making onigiri/musubi it's better to use rice that's warm. It's stickier when warm and tends to dry out when it's cold. Also, were you using a variety of Japanese sticky rice? Other rices won't work. Other than that it's all press, press, press with your hands until it's densely packed.

Is it bad that I use the recipes your child will eat to feed my non-veg 22 year old roommate? In any case he IS a total Japanophile, so thanks for including vegan options from the Manga Cookbook. I had no problem making the rice burgers, and they were super tasty! You blog is truly inspirational, and without it we'd never be able to go on picnics with the same food again! I'm just not that creative when it comes to food other people will like!

This isn't really germane to the Aug. 8 blog posting, but I couldn't figure out where else to ask it!

I just purchased The Vegan Lunchbox and am getting ingredients together so that I can make the recipes.

I have three questions:

1. I see that Kosher salt is called for in many recipes. Why Kosher salt -- is it special in some way? And until I do buy some, can I use regular Morton salt or Sea Salt?

2. Are any of the recipes freezable? Most are pretty time-consuming to make (at least from the standpoint of being a mom who works FT outside the home) so it would be much easier to make several lunches' worth of a recipe and freeze it for use later in the month.

3. How do you keep things from getting soggy in the lunchbox (btw I ordered a laptop lunchbox, should be here soon)? For example, carrots and berries are wet when put in the little cup, but with no lid, won't the entree get wet too (soggy bread or pastry is not very appealing!). And some of the recipes seem like the breading part will get damp after sitting in a lunchbox with blue ice for half a day.

Sorry for the long post. I hope Jennifer and/or some of you veterans can help!

(Despite what they say in their FAQs, I do wish the laptop lunchbox had covers for all the little containers -- seems so much more environmentally friendly than using plastic wrap, rubber bands, tin foil, etc. Maybe you could convince them to sell a set of lids for the other cups as an accessory!)

I agree completely. I wish they all had optional lids, or at the very least that one of the side dish containers had a lid.

Even better, if the big lunch box lid were molded in such a way as to form and seal itself over each container more closely, food would not shift as much and you wouldn't have to worry about losing lids.